UCSD Associated Students Election Advisory

On April 4th, UCSD students will begin electing their student government (AS) representatives for next year. Students will choose everyone from AS President to their college senators, and will vote on referendums for increased fee hikes. The people who will preside over the huge budget of AS for the next year will be elected. But what does our Associated Students actually do?

The only two explicit powers that our Associated Students has are to, “control all ASUCSD funds and appropriate those funds [and] represent the interests and opinions of UCSD undergraduate students.” How AS actually represents the interests and opinions of a diverse group of over twenty thousand students is beyond me. The reality is that AS can only represent the interests of the AS. So the disbursement of funds serves as the only substantive power that AS has. I know that AS candidates promise everything under the sun when running for election, but they luckily have very limited power on campus. Since the only real power AS has is to dole out money, whom do they give money to?

AS spends money on various events, like Sun God and pancake breakfasts, but it also gives money to student organizations for operating funds. Everything from newspapers, political groups, ethnic groups, religious groups and Greek organizations get money from AS. The amount of money given out is ultimately determined by an AS council vote. This system operates much like legislative directed spending, better known as pork barrel spending, on the federal level. Representatives in Congress have large amounts of money that they give out to various groups and projects, very similar to what AS does.

Now imagine if Congress was filled with people who worked for or had associations with the groups and projects that were getting the funding, I wish it were more difficult to do this. Imagine if the heads of Lockheed Martin sat on the Defense Appropriations Committee, or the heads of Goldman Sachs sat on the Finance Committee. If the very people who were lobbying for more money were the same people who decided how much money to give out, people would be outraged. This outrage would be warranted, as a clear conflict of interest would exist in funding allocation. Well this is exactly what happens in AS year after year.

The same people who sit on the very council that decides funding often have ties to the groups that are requesting the funding. SAAC (Student Affirmative Action Committee) groups largely operate on funding they get from AS. The problem lies in that any passive observer of AS operations can clearly see that AS is dominated with people who either have ties to SAAC groups or are overtly sympathetic to their political agenda. SAAC groups, like the BSU and MEChA, have a clearly disproportionate amount of influence on AS.

I see the clear conflict of interest that exists in AS to be a problem. It is extremely difficult for AS to objectively allocate money when many of their members have ties to the same groups that are requesting funding. This is an even bigger problem because SAAC groups have a blatant ideological agenda. SAAC groups push a “social justice” agenda that the students did not vote for or endorse. It is not the job of AS to be a partisan ideological body with an agenda, although it often is.

I’m not saying that people who have ties to student groups should not be allowed to be on AS. This would be punishing people for being active in the student community, something I think all of us should be. I am, however, saying that when you cast your vote in the upcoming election look at the groups that each candidate is associated with. The slate “Students First”, or more aptly called “Students Who Aren’t White First”, is for all intents and purposes the political action arm of SAAC. Each one of their candidates has ties to various SAAC groups, and if elected they will serve merely to enhance the power and influence of these groups. If that is what you want, then by all means vote “Students First”. If you think members of AS should look at funding requests in a more unbiased manner then vote for someone else. Unfortunately there are very few AS candidates who will be fair and unbiased, but a great way to know is by getting informed about how the UCSD AS candidates choose to affiliate themselves.

Justin is a senior in Marshall College majoring in political science. Angad is a sophomore in Sixth College majoring in philosophy.

AS Election 2011:
Candidate Associations

This list is meant to aid you in understanding which candidates are running in this year’s AS elections. It’s important to keep in mind which groups on campus candidates are associated with before voting in the AS elections. Tracking pre-power loyalties can explain why certain special interest groups have so much power in AS.

3 comments

Some appointed “student government” positions on campus are just as worrisome. Take for instance UCAB, which does fund some student activities, which has a SAAC Representative on the board. Why should one highly-biased, politically motivated cluster of student organizations get a voting member, when no other group of orgs does? Of course, why does SAAC get so much office space, while the rest of the orgs are shoved together 3 to an office? UCSD is an excellent training ground for government corruption.